Lola Mozes’ desperate plea to a Nazi camp guard did not save her mother. But by then her parents had taught her a lesson that has informed her life—no human being ever has the right to live at the expense of another.

The dominant narrative that has emerged from the horrific massacre at Charlie Hebdo is that the very foundation of freedom itself was attacked last week in Paris, and that the best way to fight Islamic fundamentalism is to uphold the ethos of the French weekly’s irreverence and satire.

British actor Gary Oldman unleashed a torrent of instantly regrettable remarks about Hollywood culture in the latest edition of Playboy, couching his statements in that tediously familiar type of defiant language so often brandished by the clueless.

The horrific chain of seven slayings in Toulouse, France, that has stunned that country could have been lifted directly from a television thriller. In fact, this whole terrible affair has been a nightmare scenario that for decades has haunted authorities in France, Europe and the United States.

The man suspected of killing three children and a rabbi on Monday in Toulouse, France, was identified and surrounded by police on Wednesday. More details about Mohammed Merah, who is also connected to the shooting deaths of three paratroopers earlier this month, also emerged.

The voice on the other end of the telephone needed to make sure that I was 21. I wasn’t. “I’m 22,” I said, lying, figuring that 19 might as well be 22 and, anyway, this was a comedy club that I was scheduling an audition for, not the Moonlite Bunny Ranch or the FBI.

If he was indeed joking, Lars Von Trier needs to work a bit on his act, not to mention the material. The notoriously difficult Danish director shocked the crowd at France’s Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday by proclaiming, during a panel about his new film, “Melancholia” ... (more)

The effort to discredit Julian Assange continues, with The New York Times reporting on a claim that Assange made anti-Semitic comments in complaining about a “Jewish smear campaign” against him and WikiLeaks.

John Galliano has been thrown out of the house of Dior. The 50-year-old couturier, given to sporting a look that might be described as swashbuckler chic, was booted from his top post at the French fashion firm after his bosses saw footage of Galliano allegedly declaring “I love Hitler” to two women at a Parisian cafe, according to the BBC.

Wouldn’t you know it—the Sarah Palin Catchphrase Generator clicked, whirred and spat out another viscerally tinged and menacing two-word combination to righteously apply to her political opponents. This week’s winner: “blood libel.” But what does it mean?

In this sit-down discussion with the Real News Network, Helen Thomas, deposed doyenne of the White House press corps, discusses her moment of infamy last spring that led to her resignation, claiming she didn’t ... (continued)

It’s been a couple of months since former White House press stalwart Helen Thomas, now 90, resigned after causing controversy with her remarks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it seems she hasn’t forgiven President Obama for his role in that drama.

The media tirade against Helen Thomas is as illogical as it is hysterical. The few sentences uttered by her were, as she quickly acknowledged, wrong—deeply so, I would add. But they cannot justify the road-rage destruction of the dean of the Washington press corps.

White House press corps veteran Helen Thomas, 89, has faced off with nine different presidents—starting with Eisenhower—and their supporting players over the course of her career, but ultimately her own words ... (continued)

Note to the Vatican: Adopting the mantle of victimhood in the face of accusations of sexual abuse by clergy members and attempted cover-ups by other church officials is not bound to go over very well with the public—especially if parallels are drawn to the persecution of the Jews.

“This young woman who upsets people ...” was the headline in Lebanon’s L’Orient Littáraire yesterday. The teenager was Anne Frank, who died of typhoid at Bergen-Belsen in 1945 after being betrayed to the Nazi authorities, along with her family, in her Amsterdam “safe house.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likened a report in a Swedish tabloid that said Israeli troops harvested organs from dead Palestinians to “medieval libels that Jews killed Christian children for their blood.”

An 88-year-old anti-Semite shot up the U.S. Holocaust Museum on Wednesday, killing a security guard in the process. President Obama said in response “we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism.” Sure, but how about getting a little vigilant against guns?

I have long raged against any comparisons with the Second World War—whether of the Arafat-is-Hitler variety once deployed by Menachem Begin or of the anti-war- demonstrators-are- 1930s-appeasers, most recently used by George Bush and Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara.

About a day after John McCain expressed his disapproval over the insensitive comments of a supporter, the candidate was once again forced to disown ignoble behavior, this time from an official part of his party. The Tennessee Republican Party issued a press release that featured a photo of Barack Obama wearing traditional African clothing, cited his middle name (Hussein) and attempted to portray him as an anti-Semite.

Celebrity scandals aren’t our bag. But considering that some Jewish groups felt Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” did more to further anti-Semitism than any other piece of pop culture in recent memory, we figure that Gibson’s apology for his anti-Semitic remarks over the weekend is fair game.

The columnist weighs in on the controversial report about America’s pro-Israel lobby: The accusation of anti-Semitism is far too often raised in this country against anyone who criticizes the government of Israel.

On Monday an Austrian court sentenced crackpot British historian David Irving to three years’ imprisonment for having denied the Holocaust 17 years ago. Directly on the heels of rioting sparked by the Muhammad cartoons, the ruling has exposed a longstanding double standard in the West about who is entitled to free speech and why.

The high school course on the Bible’s influence on society would be an elective. storyIt’s such an obvious end run around the Constitution’s Establishment Clause that we’ll hold fire. But check this: The course textbook contains a boxed feature that shows how the Bible was used “to justify and even encourage anti-Semitism.” Wow! A whole boxed feature? We wonder if there’s a footnote about that whole Spanish Inquisition thing….